YEWANDE 103

By Alexandrina Hemsley
In collaboration with Nancy Mae Roberts
As part of the Open Dialogo program, commissioned by Arts Council England, the Italian Ministry of Culture (The Performing Arts department), the Italian Cultural Institute of London and the British Council, to promote a bilateral cultural exchange through sharing of knowledge and experiences between Disabled and non-disabled artists and influencers working in England and Italy

How can dance and dance institutions repair a damaged personal and social body in times of supremacism and oppression? Yewande 103’s creative journey questions how to make the work of reparation-performed by artistic practitioners-valuable, sustainable, and meaningful, how to become organism-repairing, and what narratives need to be repaired, with and by whom.

Yewande 103 is one of the only black, disabled and neurodiverse dance organizations in the United Kingdom. The theme of repair is present in all of Yewande103’s live, film and participatory works. The team has significant experience in the arts and health; Yewande is the Yoruba middle name of Alexandrina Hemsley, handed down from her great-great-grandmother who escaped from slave traders.It means “mother has returned.” Intergenerational nurturing and survival are the ways in which Y103 upholds the values of care and connection.